Many petrochemicals and polymers are manufactured by environmentally unfriendly processes that produce significant amounts of waste (e.g. adipic acid manufacturing requires HNO3-oxidation of cyclohexanol/cyclohexane, resulting in massive amounts of green-house gas emissions). Since petrochemical manufacturing requires such energy intensive, environmentally damaging processes, there is clearly a need for new approaches that produce petrochemical replacements from renewable feedstocks such as lignocellulose.